Alex smiled inside herself at that because she'd seen Steve scooped up by another girl, the instant she'd been whisked away by Tarquin.
Steve felt he and Alex had an understanding and that, although the odd dance with someone else might be permissible, disappearing with them wasn't meant to be part of it. Troubled and confused, he'd fought to keep his emotions under control. After being up all night, he eventually collapsed into his bed, waking sometime around five in the afternoon with a serious hangover. He had a meal in the uni canteen, which hadn't made him feel a whole lot better, and set off to try the library. When there was no sign of Alex there, he went to the student discount shop and then the coffee bar, hanging around in the hope Alex would turn up. On his way through the reception area, he checked for messages but there were none. Back in the canteen again, he spied a couple of security guys. They told him they hadn't seen anyone of Alex's description, which only served to make him feel worse.
On Saturday night Steve ended up in the bar where the Freshers' Ball had begun twenty-four hours before. He saw someone wave from the other side of the room. It was the girl he'd danced with after Alex went off with the rugby guy. She came over and joined him for a drink. She could see he was worried and he explained about Alex.
Giving Steve the benefit of her girls' take on things, she'd said, 'She'll be fine. She isn't going to completely forget you after spending one night with some team captain or whatever he is.'
Steve blanched at the 'spending one night' part and said, 'I didn't say he was the captain but I expect you're right.'
If nothing else, Steve thought, he would have the memory of the times he'd spent with Alex between the zombie crisis and going to uni.
The girl had smiled and scribbled something on a scrap of paper before going off to re-join her girlfriends. Steve looked down at the paper. It simply contained the message:
Wendy
Block C
He had put it in his pocket and gone back to his room, where he watched the movie channel until he fell asleep.
Waking late the next morning, he'd spent half of the day in a daze, until the police showed up at half-past two in the afternoon and took him away. An hour after that, he was talking to Alex.
Tarquin, still having been kept separate from Alex, was interviewed by Commander Hodgeson himself in the presence of two sinister-looking secret service personnel in very dark glasses.
Although it had been established that he wasn't an agent of the disgraced former Minister for Home Affairs, Tarquin was instructed that he would be under intermittent surveillance for an indefinite period. Allowing Her Majesty's Special Operatives to believe he was someone he wasn't didn't amount to a shooting offence. In future, though, he'd better cooperate fully because a second misdemeanour would lead to all sorts of trouble Tarquin would not enjoy in the least. In order to impress upon him the seriousness of the situation, Tarquin was not immediately taken back and released to his hall of residence. He was subjected to more than an hour of further identity checks, required to sign the Official Secrets Act, and kept in custody for a further couple of days.
Chapter 8: The Scream
The morning after Steve arrived at the camp, Alex knocked for him on her way to the canteen.
Steve had taken advantage of the shower and was feeling fresh and wide awake. 'Everything seems pretty normal, until you come out and see all these people in uniforms,' he said as they joined the breakfast queue.
'You're lucky. You didn't have to wear khaki for a day.'
'No, well we are civilians.'
'I hope they don't send us somewhere else, though,' Alex said, looking around the canteen at the bustle of military personnel setting themselves up for the day with a decent meal.
'Why do you say that?'
'Well, it feels safe here. I guess any one of these people would put themselves between us and a zombie.'
'Let's hope so.'
'You know,' Alex said, 'with all the excitement over the last few days, I forgot to tell you about something.'
'What?'
'The day before the Freshers' Ball I had a text from my mum,' Alex said, watching the people ahead helping themselves to cereal and stewed fruit. She hoped there'd be some left for her.
'And?'
'You know Sarah who helped us escape?'
'The lady who runs the sandwich shop in Kilkorne.' Steve nodded. 'Got us through the army camp by giving away a load of pies.'
'She's going to write a book about it all.'
'Wow. She got a publisher, agent, editor and all that?'
'Nah. Hardly anyone bothers with that these days. She wants us to read it and make sure she's got everything in the right order and not left anything out. Then she's got a friend with a degree in English who goes to a writers' group and they're going to check it through and proof it.'
'I didn't know she could write.'
'Had a couple of stories published in magazines, apparently, before the zombies.'
'But how do you publish a book without a publisher?'
'There's a few websites you can upload for free and they put it up for sale as an ebook.'
Steve looked impressed. 'So you can read it on an ereader.'
'Phone, tablet, PC, anywhere.'
'That's cool,' Steve said, looking longingly at the sausages which were still a way down the counter. He fidgeted with his tray. 'Wouldn't mind having my phone back. They take yours?'
'I asked the guard last night. Said we could have them back sometime today.'
'Probably they want to stop us from contacting anyone about all this.'
'What about Fred and Rachel and Maisie?' Alex said. 'Do you think they'll be brought here, too?'
'They're being kept under observation,' Commander Hodgeson interrupted. He'd broken through the line of diners waiting to be served.
'Oh, hi,' Alex said. 'Are you based here?'
'No, just doing the rounds checking up on things. Making sure you're both OK.'
'It's odd being in the second new place in a week, especially being kind of locked in. But I guess it's alright. '
'Will we have to stay here long?' Steve said.
'That depends,' Hodgeson said. He looked around in a way which indicated that any further conversation should not be overheard.
Steve surreptitiously tapped his nose and, having reached the head of the queue, concentrated on filling his tray from the choice of breakfast items on offer.
When the three of them were seated in a quiet corner, Alex said, 'Any progress?'
'Not yet.'
'What's happening with the others?' Steve said. 'And our parents?'
'All hush, hush. Your other school friends don't start their courses for another week, so we decided to leave them where they are, safe with their families. We've been in touch to reassure your parents. Everyone's fine.'
'If you don't let us have our phones so we can get in touch with our friends, they'll suspect something,' Alex said.
'We thought of that,' the commander said, reaching into his jacket pocket and handing over the handsets. 'But not a word about any of this. Just text to say everything is OK.'
Alex gave the man a pained expression.
'I'm sorry, Alex, straight from the PM. Until we know what's what.'
Alex grabbed Steve's arm. 'Did you hear that?'
'No, what?'
Alex looked at Commander Hodgeson. 'You've got zombies here, haven't you?'
'Absolutely not,' he said. 'Those under observation are all at Breathedeep.'
'But that scream.' Alex said. 'I'm sure I heard it.'
Hodgeson opened the window next to the table and they sat quiet, listening.
'There!' Alex said, sitting bolt upright. She could feel the hair on her arms standing on end.
'Relax,' the commander said. 'It's OK. They're doing exercises in the woods. It's the trainers' whistles being distorted by the wind.'
'You're sure?'
'Certain.' Hodgeson smiled gently. 'When you've
finished breakfast I'll take you to the observation post and you can watch.'
Chapter 9: More Screaming
Alex and Steve followed Commander Hodgeson out through the complex of buildings at the centre of the army base, past the accommodation blocks to the foot of a tall tower, looking not unlike the control tower at an airport.
'There was a runway here years ago but it's disused now and we use the old con tower for coordinating the training exercises they specialise in here.'
All the old radar and communications equipment had been removed from the control centre to make a three-sixty degree observation lounge. There were map tables, office chairs and sofas, radio equipment for keeping in touch with the groups of soldiers on manoeuvres, and a coffee machine. Windows were open on the side overlooking an area of open terrain bordered by woodland. There was an area covered in obstacles of every description, from concrete piping to derelict buildings. The woods contained a maze of tracks and clearings between the trees and dense patches of undergrowth. From the observation lounge, it was easy to hear the occasional blasts of the trainers' whistles.
Alex quickly lost interest in the explanation of the training programme Commander Hodgeson and one of the coordinators gave Steve. She wandered around the circumference of the observation lounge and came to rest at a window facing over the residential part of the camp. Looking back to where the Steve and the two officers were studying a map, Alex was about to ask permission to open one of the windows. They were so engrossed she didn't like to interrupt, so went ahead anyway. It was high enough to get that wobbly feeling in your legs if you looked down, so Alex didn't, she enjoyed a warm breeze on her face as she watched the orderly activity around the base, vehicles moving supplies, equipment being stowed, even it appeared, someone being arrested.
Two military police personnel escorted a woman in a white lab coat to a personnel carrier. Alex watched with fascination, wondering what crime had required the person to be restrained in handcuffs. As she followed the progress towards the carrier, the captive's face turned and appeared to look directly at Alex. Alex froze as she recognised the woman from the interrogation room. The woman's face contorted and she let out the most horribly piercing scream. The zombie scream.
Alex turned to the group behind her, to find they were already striding towards her window.
'I heard it,' Commander Hodgeson said. The coordinator beside him was already speaking rapidly into a walkie-talkie. Steve ran forward and embraced Alex as all four of them looked down on the unfortunate prisoner.
In response to orders relayed from the coordinator to the personnel carrier, someone leapt out from it, spoke to the military police officers and escorted the woman back to the guard house. A moment later, a jeep roared up to the guard house. From the back seats, a doctor and nurse jumped out and ran after the MPs.
Hodgeson spoke confidentially with the coordinator, then turned to Steve and Alex, who'd taken refuge in a nearby sofa, where they could still see out of the window.
'I thought we'd be safe here,' Alex said.
'I believed we all were,' Hodgeson said. 'I'll be onto Professor Mason as soon as I can get hold of him.’
'But what should we do?' Steve said.
'The door locks from the inside,' the training coordinator said, 'As soon as we've left, lock it and keep it locked until you hear from me again.'
'Commander, How long…?'
'As long as it takes, I'm afraid.'
The coordinator also demonstrated the communications equipment, so that Steve and Alex could be kept informed, then left with Commander Hodgeson.
'If we lock it from the inside, no-one can open it from the outside?' Alex said.
'Correct. Don't let anyone in without radio confirmation first.'
Steve and Alex watched the men walk from the foot of the tower into the administration centre.
'At least we've got all the facilities up here,' Steve said.
'And a bird's eye view of the whole camp,' Alex said, closing the window.
Chapter 10: Vantage Point
The teens in the tower, as they later became known in Sarah's book, had to fend for themselves all day. There was nowhere else to go, so they ended up sleeping in their clothes on the sofas, having made do with the coordinator's packed lunch and drinks from the machine. Luckily the vending machine didn't require either coins or tokens because otherwise the pair would have soon run out.
'As we're going to be here for a while, we might as well see what there is,' Steve said.
Together they looked around the desk tops for anything edible or useful for self-defence purposes. In terms of the latter, there was nothing more useful than a plastic ruler. When the desk tops yielded nothing, other than piles of neat folders and paperwork, they started opening all the drawers. It all looked like more boring paper-work, until the last drawer they came to. It contained two chocolate bars.
'Do you think they'll mind?' Alex said, reaching in and taking them out.
Steve grinned. 'It's an emergency.'
They ate one between them immediately and saved the other until later. As the munched, they wandered around the big, circular room. There wasn't much: four sofas spaced around under the windows; a collection of four desks and the communication equipment in the centre; two pairs of binoculars on the window sill, copies of two different newspapers from the day before, and the drinks dispenser.
Steve picked up one of the pairs of binoculars, focussed and swept them over the woodlands.
'I can see them. They're all being called back to the camp.'
Alex looked out and saw several dozen men and women in camo gear stream out of the woods past the base of the tower carrying a range of field operations equipment. Less than an hour later, they heard another zombie scream and two hours after that, the first Breathedeep transport wagon arrived to take away the white-coated woman and three sedated soldiers.
Over thirty more screaming zombie cases erupted before nightfall. Alex again followed the Breathedeep transports arriving at intervals to take away the affected individuals, all of whom were heavily sedated within minutes of being captured. Other than when people were carried about on stretchers, the whole pace of the camp had really hotted up. Instead of people walking around in an orderly manner, everyone was running.
'Doesn't seem terribly latent to me,' Steve said. 'They look like they're heading for being full-blown zombies.'
Alex sighed. 'Give them another couple of days and they will be. I just hope they can find some way to treat them.'
'It's worse than before.' Steve said. 'It doesn't seem to need the conventional means of transmission, it just appears spontaneously out of nowhere.’
'They must already have the virus inside them.'
'Just think if this wasn't happening in an army camp, it would be all over the news by now.'
'How do we know it isn't? How do we even know it's not happening everywhere else?'
They tried to retune the radio equipment to pick up broadcast news or music stations. After ten minutes trying every switch and dial, all they'd found was fragments of military transmissions. Some were scrambled and the equipment in the tower didn't have a decoder system.
'What are we going to do?' Alex said. 'I'd really like to know what's going on out there.'
'I hope Kilkorne hasn't been hit again.'
Alex moved closer to Steve. 'That's just what I was thinking.'
'We could ask the commander.'
'But it's not really urgent and it all looks pretty frantic out there.'
Steve picked up the walkie-talkie, saying, 'Worst he can do is tell us not to bother him.' He pressed the Talk button and spoke into the mike. 'Hello, calling Commander Hodgeson?'
'No, this is his aide. You're one of the students.'
'Steve.' He looked at Alex and raised his eyebrows. 'How did you know?'
The man laughed. 'We have all sorts of different call-codes and passwords. You didn't use one.'
'Oh, OK, do we need on
e?'
'Nah, we'll know who you are.' The sound of running footsteps came through the speaker. 'What do you want? We're kinda busy here.'
'We can see people running around all over the place.'
'That's it.'
'Well, we've been worrying about our parents. Is the same thing happening outside the camp?'
'No, definitely not. If it was we'd really be in it. Anything else?'
'Er, no. Thanks for that.'
'We'd better not bother them again, unless it's an emergency,' Alex said, taking the radio and laying it down on the desk. They went back to watching through the window.
As the sun began to set behind the trees on the other side of the tower, lights began being turned on all over the camp. They watched a detail put ladders up to the flat roof of the mess hall and set up flood lights at each corner. Alex went back to the door which led out to the stairwell.
'Steve, check this with me?'
Alex looked at the four deadbolts, sliding them back and forth one at a time, leaving them in the locked position. He grabbed the handle and pulled on it.
'Seems secure to me.' Steve whacked the door with his fist a couple of times, producing a dull thud. 'Door's pretty solid, I'd say.'
'What about the lights?'
'I imagine they work. Do you want them on?'
'I don't know. The drinks machine gives out a bit of light.'
'If we put the lights on, we might draw attention to the place.'
Alex shivered. 'Leave them off.'
Chapter 11: After Dark
They stuck to the plan of not contacting the Commander after the first attempt at calling. At widely spaced intervals they received official updates from Commander Hodgeson, his aide, the camp supervisor or the training supervisor they'd met earlier. The reports didn't tell them much they hadn't seen or worked out for themselves. Alex and Steve didn't need to be told that the whole camp had been put on full alert. No-one was permitted to move around individually, everyone had to be part of a pair or small group. Restraints were issued to everyone.
British Zombie Breakout: Part Four Page 3